Ceng Zi kills Bi (Ceng Zi cooks Bi) and Ceng Zi kills pigs. The idiom: Kill Bi teaches his son. Metaphor is that a man must keep his promise and keep his word.

Ceng Zi tells the story that Ceng Zi's wife promised her son to kill a pig for him to eat when she was coaxing the children. Afterwards, Ceng Zi really killed the pig to fulfill this promise.

"Ceng Zi Killing Bi" is a well-known story, which popularly and profoundly expounds the truth that once parents make promises, they must keep their promises. Ceng Zi used his own actions to teach children to keep his word and be honest with others.

It is a metaphor that a man should keep his promise and keep his word

Ceng Zi insisted on killing the pig because of his wife's joke of "coming back to kill the pig for you to eat" to fulfill his promise, which reflected the Confucian moral concept of "keeping his word". ① It embodies the importance of educating children to match words with deeds. Do things in accordance with words and deeds, and don't talk nonsense. In order not to break his promise to children, Ceng Zi really killed the pig and cooked it for children to eat. The purpose was to educate and influence future generations with an honest and trustworthy attitude towards life. Ceng Zi kills pigs (zhi) (Ceng Zi cooks pigs), also called: Ceng Zi kills pigs.

from Han Feizi

Original text

Ceng Zi (1) The wife's city (2), and his son wept with it (3). His mother said, "Female (4) is still here, but I'm afraid I'll kill zhì)⑹ for you." When his wife came to the right city, Ceng Zi wanted to catch him and kill him. The wife stopped saying, "I play with the baby." Zeng Zi said, "Babies are not involved in play. Babies must be wise, and they should be taught by their parents and scholars. If this child deceives them, it is the godson who deceives them. The mother deceives the son, and the son does not believe in his mother, so it is not necessary to become a teacher! " Then you can cook it.

(selected from Han Fei's "Han Fei Zi's Stories on the Left" in the Warring States Period, The Integration of Scholars by Zhonghua Book Company, 1954)

Translation

When Mrs. Ceng Zi goes to the market, her children will follow her when she cries. His mother said to him, "Go home first, and I'll come back later to kill pigs for you." When Ceng Zi's wife came back from the fair, she saw Ceng Zi trying to catch pigs and kill them. She dissuaded him and said, "I'm just joking with the children." Ceng Zi said: "(Madam) This is no joke! The child doesn't know (that you) are joking with him. He has no ability to think and judge, so he should learn from his parents and listen to their correct teaching. Now you are cheating him, which is to educate children to cheat! If a mother deceives a child, the child will no longer trust his mother. This is not the correct way to educate the child. " So Ceng Zi killed the pig and cooked it for the children.

Figure

Notes

(1) Ceng Zi (BC 55 ~ BC 432): Zeng Shen, a disciple of Confucius, was known as Ceng Zi. He was quiet, steady, cautious, courteous and famous for his filial piety. He once put forward the idea of "being cautious in the end, pursuing the distance, and respecting people's morality" and the cultivation method of "I will save myself three times a day". It is said that "University" with self-cultivation as its main content is his work.

(2) Ceng Zi's wife city: Ceng Zi.